River Courtesy

[NCL]

I did not want to hijack another thread so I thought I would start a new topic. I read the other thread about a guide that maybe less than courtesy and respectful to other fisherman on the river, or at least that was the way I interpreted that thread. We should all try to practice courtesy on the river because it is a shared resource. I realize that guides are sometimes under pressure to produce for some tempermental person that thinks just because they hired a guide that steelhead are going to jump on there line. Which if you have spent any time chasing that fish you know is not going to happen. It is often exacerbated by outdoor writers that talk about 20 fish days which raises expectations to levels that are probably not real. With that said, now I will probably make some guides mad, I think that guides have to be the example to the rest of us on the river. Guides are on the rivers much more than us and see many more people, so they can effect more people through their example. On one of the few occasions I that I went with a guide everytime we encountered a person on the bank we would tell us to bring in our lines and then ask the person how to drift throught the spot. We still hooked fish so that courtesy cost us nothing. I fish for steelhead on the Trinity River in Northern California which is really hammered because of it's close proximity to the Bay Area. The Trinity is a small river and almost without exception the people in drift boats are very courtesy. Just some random thoughts and certainly did not mean to offend anyone.

[Ladyangler]

This could not be brought up enough. Courtesy has alot to do with the arguments that occur on the river between boaters and the bank anglers. The big problem is that everything flows downstream, and once you've been deemed loud or not courtious you then become a target.

Guides have the oppurtunity to alleviate the problem if they choose. Some guides feel that because of their name or reputation everyone needs to stand down and let them fish whether they like it or not. The funny thing about this is that they even do it to other guides just to see how far they can go.

The bigger word is respect, until these anglers who choose not to be courtious learn, they will never get the respect they think they deserve.

[Catch 22]

I guided for a couple years and know what you're saying. I don't think a guide has any more rights to the water than anyone else. They have no special priveledges. They also have no more of a duty to set an example than you or me. They are people like you that are out there fishing in a boat like you. Just because they have clients in the boat doesn't mean they have more rights to fish than you.

That being said, no guide should want to give themselves a bad name on the rivers by being a jerk. Most guides care only about the numbers. Numbers of fish and number of dollars. You can't blame them, thats all the clients care about and that's how they feed their families. Making the client happy is job #1. So they work hard and can be agressive. It's when they take it too far that people get upset and they should be.

Don't expect a guide to be any different than another person on the river. Maybe they should be, but it's just not the case.

My 2 cents that's still only worth a penny on a good day!:wink: